2 cents on the Uniti Core

DUPREE posted:

I bought a Uniti Core after an in-home demo. I had/have a synology and have a 10TB Western Digital drive in the core. I moved the Synology to a different room and use it for backup. Via the coax digital into the NAC-N 272 it is startlingly better than UPnP. I have even in casual listening stopped in my tracks and re-listened to what I was hearing because I was hearing parts of the music I had never heard before. Overall really like the device. Have a few issues - wish the NAIM app was better integrated in an all NAIM system, it is a pain and sometimes unreliable to switch between sources, when the Core is selected as an input it would really be nice to be able to change the 272's volume instead of having two disparate views. Organization took so readjusting due to lack of folder view. Overall, a few things were a learning curve and a bit cumbersome and I am in the tech field. Overall, however I would say it is all very worth it - especially if you can take advantage of the digital out. It is a great source, it is a very convenient server. I am certainly happy to own it. What are others experiences?

i am surprised to read that the sound is better in coaxial with the 272. I believe you but wonder why naim , in statement demo, uses the core with nds in upnp?  Perhaps the streaming capabilities are not so good in the 272, better dac than streaming option in the 272?

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

Can you mix tracks from Core via BNC with Tidal tracks in the current playlist?

DUPREE posted:

I bought a Uniti Core after an in-home demo. I had/have a synology and have a 10TB Western Digital drive in the core. I moved the Synology to a different room and use it for backup. Via the coax digital into the NAC-N 272 it is startlingly better than UPnP. I have even in casual listening stopped in my tracks and re-listened to what I was hearing because I was hearing parts of the music I had never heard before. Overall really like the device. Have a few issues - wish the NAIM app was better integrated in an all NAIM system, it is a pain and sometimes unreliable to switch between sources, when the Core is selected as an input it would really be nice to be able to change the 272's volume instead of having two disparate views. Organization took so readjusting due to lack of folder view. Overall, a few things were a learning curve and a bit cumbersome and I am in the tech field. Overall, however I would say it is all very worth it - especially if you can take advantage of the digital out. It is a great source, it is a very convenient server. I am certainly happy to own it. What are others experiences?

Dupree, same experience hear re digital into 272, I thought it was more than that my UPnP set up was lacking....my only frustrations with the Core are as your point re switching across two devices to control what to listen to too and volume, also if my wi fi is down there appears to be no control of the Core via 272.

Kevin Richardson posted:

Can you mix tracks from Core via BNC with Tidal tracks in the current playlist?

This would be quite surprising given that the Core by design does not support internet streaming services!

Dupree,

My experience with the Core lines up with yours. It is much better than when the same files are played via UPnP. I had my music stored internally on the internal drive of the Core. I am going to do some testing to see if I store the music on a NAS if there is any difference than streaming it via UPnP from the internal hdd of the Core.

nbpf posted:

Kevin Richardson posted:

Can you mix tracks from Core via BNC with Tidal tracks in the current playlist?

This would be quite surprising given that the Core by design does not support internet streaming services!

I guess I'm wondering if the app is smart enough to be able to add streaming tracks knowing it is a different input. Right now I can mix Tidal with UPNP even though they are "technically" different inputs. I suppose the NDX treats "streams" as a single input type.

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

Pretty sad when the NDX is about $7,000 USD.

Kevin Richardson posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

Pretty sad when the NDX is about $7,000 USD.

Yes, it is sad. I have been arguing from the very beginning that -- letting apart the ripping fetures which, as it turned out, come with their own design issues -- the most interesting usage for the Core is as electrical SPDIF source for devices with an electical SPDIF input like the Naim DAC and the NDS. This is because there are many obvious alternatives to using the Core as a UPnP server but, apart from DIY solutions, not so many alternatives to using the Core as an electrical SPDIF source with BNC connector. To excel as a SPDIF source, however, the Core would have to support internet radio and streaming services and, ideally, have a wireless interface. This is not only perfectly doable but also very easy to implement. The fact that Naim is purposely not supporting these features is not only sad but, in my view, mean.

Lean and mean they say.

Chag -

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

if what you say was true, naim statement demos in shows will be nds/core in dc1. But they demonstrates in upnp. I don't think you are right, sorry.

Richard Choong posted:

Dupree,

My experience with the Core lines up with yours. It is much better than when the same files are played via UPnP. I had my music stored internally on the internal drive of the Core. I am going to do some testing to see if I store the music on a NAS if there is any difference than streaming it via UPnP from the internal hdd of the Core.

when you use the core as player, in spdif, you use only the dac section of your nds. All the streaming part of the nds is disabled. It is a pity i think. And why naim audio doesn't demonstrate nds/core in upnp?   But perhaps, finally, you are true and i miss something....

Keler Pierre posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

if what you say was true, naim statement demos in shows will be nds/core in dc1. But they demonstrates in upnp. I don't think you are right, sorry.

Why? It seems to me quite obvious that show setups are not necessarily selected as to maximise sound quality. Why should they? 

nbpf posted:

Keler Pierre posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

if what you say was true, naim statement demos in shows will be nds/core in dc1. But they demonstrates in upnp. I don't think you are right, sorry.

Why? It seems to me quite obvious that show setups are not necessarily selected as to maximise sound quality. Why should they? 

nds is a streamer and a dac. When you connect it to the core in spdif, you loose all the streaming functions of the nds, you use only the dac. So why use a so costly product as the nds to use only the dac inside, it is a pitty a bit...

I just sent the question to naim support about this. I am very curious.

If you are right, and if i buy the core, i will use it with a dac, only dac, in spdif, like future ndac2 or else....

I want to add that at the beginning, with my nds and unitserve with linear ps, i found the dc1 mode better too. But after, when i isolated my network with optical bridge, put audioquest diamond ethernet and linear ps on switches, the upnp mode with my nds/serve was notably better than spdif,  by a big margin.  But i have not the core.

For now i am curious with all your experiences and findings in this forum.

Keler Pierre posted:

nbpf posted:

Keler Pierre posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

if what you say was true, naim statement demos in shows will be nds/core in dc1. But they demonstrates in upnp. I don't think you are right, sorry.

Why? It seems to me quite obvious that show setups are not necessarily selected as to maximise sound quality. Why should they? 

nds is a streamer and a dac. When you connect it to the core in spdif, you loose all the streaming functions of the nds, you use only the dac. So why use a so costly product as the nds to use only the dac inside, it is a pitty a bit...

I just sent the question to naim support about this. I am very curious.

If you are right, and if i buy the core, i will use it with a dac, only dac, in spdif, like future ndac2 or else....

I want to add that at the beginning, with my nds and unitserve with linear ps, i found the dc1 mode better too. But after, when i isolated my network with optical bridge, put audioquest diamond ethernet and linear ps on switches, the upnp mode with my nds/serve was notably better than spdif,  by a big margin.  But i have not the core.

For now i am curious with all your experiences and findings in this forum.

What I want to say is that the idea of a show is to promote those solutions that a company aims at actually selling. Naim is obviously not interested in selling the Core as a SPDIF source. Otherwise, they would have equipped the Core player with support for internet radio and for internet streaming services. Understandably, they are also not very interested in promoting the NDS as a pure DAC. Thus, I would not expect setups in which the Core acts as a SPDIF source for a NDS to be very much advertised either at shows or at Naim dealers. This, however, does not imply (but it might be the case, of course) that a setup in which the Core acts as a SPDIF source for a NDS does not sound as good (or even better) than a setup in which the Core acts as a UPnP server for a NDS. In short, I do not think that it makes sense to draw very strong conclusions on sound quality on the basis of the setups that are presented at shows.

nbpf posted:

Keler Pierre posted:

nbpf posted:

Keler Pierre posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

if what you say was true, naim statement demos in shows will be nds/core in dc1. But they demonstrates in upnp. I don't think you are right, sorry.

Why? It seems to me quite obvious that show setups are not necessarily selected as to maximise sound quality. Why should they? 

nds is a streamer and a dac. When you connect it to the core in spdif, you loose all the streaming functions of the nds, you use only the dac. So why use a so costly product as the nds to use only the dac inside, it is a pitty a bit...

I just sent the question to naim support about this. I am very curious.

If you are right, and if i buy the core, i will use it with a dac, only dac, in spdif, like future ndac2 or else....

I want to add that at the beginning, with my nds and unitserve with linear ps, i found the dc1 mode better too. But after, when i isolated my network with optical bridge, put audioquest diamond ethernet and linear ps on switches, the upnp mode with my nds/serve was notably better than spdif,  by a big margin.  But i have not the core.

For now i am curious with all your experiences and findings in this forum.

What I want to say is that the idea of a show is to promote those solutions that a company aims at actually selling. Naim is obviously not interested in selling the Core as a SPDIF source. Otherwise, they would have equipped the Core player with support for internet radio and for internet streaming services. Understandably, they are also not very interested in promoting the NDS as a pure DAC. Thus, I would not expect setups in which the Core acts as a SPDIF source for a NDS to be very much advertised either at shows or at Naim dealers. This, however, does not imply (but it might be the case, of course) that a setup in which the Core acts as a SPDIF source for a NDS does not sound as good (or even better) than a setup in which the Core acts as a UPnP server for a NDS. In short, I do not think that it makes sense to draw very strong conclusions on sound quality on the basis of the setups that are presented at shows.

Phil Harris confirmed me that naim use nds/core in upnp. But maybe you are right, it is perhaps just a marketing strategy.

In other way, why not , for naim, showing the best sound quality of their products ?  all is a little strange for me.  I am waiting also other sharings of nds/core users...

Dupree

Glad to hear that the Core is working for you,I also have a N272,and was eagerly waiting for your feedback on it.I just might go ahead and order one now,thanks for the input!

Given that I've dealt with and resolved no end of issues with upnp, I wonder if spdif  > upnp just due to setup issues - and once setup issues are solved, upnp ~ spdif.

I have heard that Uniti core's spdif is way improved compared to UnitiServes. Dunno how the unitiserv powered by a linear psu compares though ...

nbpf posted:

Kevin Richardson posted:

DUPREE posted:

That is not the case. I have myself heard and my reseller has done a great number of comparisions. I have also talked with people testing with NDX or NDS as well, and it is a significant improvement when fed into the digital input on these devices as well.  It is just a better renderer connected digital than the internal renderers over UPnP in all 3 cases. Take a listen..

Pretty sad when the NDX is about $7,000 USD.

Yes, it is sad. I have been arguing from the very beginning that -- letting apart the ripping fetures which, as it turned out, come with their own design issues -- the most interesting usage for the Core is as electrical SPDIF source for devices with an electical SPDIF input like the Naim DAC and the NDS. This is because there are many obvious alternatives to using the Core as a UPnP server but, apart from DIY solutions, not so many alternatives to using the Core as an electrical SPDIF source with BNC connector. To excel as a SPDIF source, however, the Core would have to support internet radio and streaming services and, ideally, have a wireless interface. This is not only perfectly doable but also very easy to implement. The fact that Naim is purposely not supporting these features is not only sad but, in my view, mean.

Wouldn't that be the UnitiQute paired with a NAS Into the ndac/555 ?

MangoMonkey posted:

Given that I've dealt with and resolved no end of issues with upnp, I wonder if spdif  > upnp just due to setup issues - and once setup issues are solved, upnp ~ spdif.

I have heard that Uniti core's spdif is way improved compared to UnitiServes. Dunno how the unitiserv powered by a linear psu compares though ...

i would like to know to.....i tried myself this comparison but the core i borrowed was a january one...

I was thinking of getting uptone audio js2 to power both a switch and the UnitiServe. How does it compare to the Israeli one?

And what size DC cable did you order 2.5mm? or 2.1mm?

I currently do not have a NAS,I just use my laptop to stream,but if I have to get linear power supplies,isolaters,fancy Ethernet cables,switches etc. to equal the sound you get by just plugging a Core in,I will pass,and go for the Core.

MangoMonkey posted:

I was thinking of getting uptone audio js2 to power both a switch and the UnitiServe. How does it compare to the Israeli one?

And what size DC cable did you order 2.5mm? or 2.1mm?

i did not remember but mister crespi of uptone audio said me witch  cable the unitserve needs. He is very kind and responded quick to my questions.

I investigate on lot of forums like computer audiophile, audiosharks, head hifi...and users said this uptone is the best, better than hdplex, kenneth lau , paul hynes, sbooster....

The mcru one for unitserve is probably on the same efficiency, but it can power only one item.

I could not have imagined that the upgrade in sound quality will be so effective, vs my last tp ps. 

I think the dc cable is 2,5 mn , with 12v to my serve, and also 2,5 with 5v to the tp link switch. But Alan Crespi knows.

No quarter posted:

I currently do not have a NAS,I just use my laptop to stream,but if I have to get linear power supplies,isolaters,fancy Ethernet cables,switches etc. to equal the sound you get by just plugging a Core in,I will pass,and go for the Core.

if i were you i would wait a bit for the core. For now a lot of users are complaining about metadata. Naim has not fixed all...

You must also know if you have a lot of cds to rip. If not, you can have the same sound with a nas like qnap 251 with good linear ps. 

I you want to add a dac in spdif, the core is better...But you have also melco....Take your time...

Keler Pierre posted:

No quarter posted:

I currently do not have a NAS,I just use my laptop to stream,but if I have to get linear power supplies,isolaters,fancy Ethernet cables,switches etc. to equal the sound you get by just plugging a Core in,I will pass,and go for the Core.

if i were you i would wait a bit for the core. For now a lot of users are complaining about metadata. Naim has not fixed all...

You must also know if you have a lot of cds to rip. If not, you can have the same sound with a nas like qnap 251 with good linear ps. 

I you want to add a dac in spdif, the core is better...But you have also melco....Take your time...

i want also to add: the core will give you better sound than your laptop, no problem. But if you upgrade your network, you will have an upgrade too, perhaps even better.

I recommend you :  etalon isolator between switch and streamer : around 350 pounds.

                                  audioquest vodka lan cable or meicord.  100 pounds for the meicord.

                               a switch, different from your box/router:  cisco 2960 ( used one, around 80 pounds).